Pages

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Carnival of Genealogy, 91st Edition

Welcome to the March 18, 2010 edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic for this edition is in keeping with Women's History Month: Write a biography about a woman on your family tree starting with a timeline of their life. I must say, Women's History Month inspires some of the very best writing! I'm sure you'll agree, as you read through the 21 articles in this edition, that the writing talent among this group of participants really shines through! You'll be transported across rivers, streams, and oceans to far away places and times, to meet some truly remarkable women. And not only is this edition all about women but all of the contributors are women. I'm not sure if we've ever had an all-ladies edition of the COG before!

In this edition I'll be commenting on a few articles. These articles are not "better" than the rest but there's something about them I want to call your attention to. Maybe they were especially well researched, maybe they made me laugh, maybe they are a good example of story-telling, maybe they taught me something I didn't already know, etc. Just think of it as me pointing out some of the various rides offered at a carnival ;-)

The featured article, which appears at the end of the COG, is one that stands out from the crowd. It's a shining example of putting all the ingredients together and coming up with a 5 course dinner. It covers the topic thoroughly, in an engaging way, and leaves you fully satisfied at the end.

In honor of all the ladies who are remembered in this edition and those who wrote about them, we'll have a tea party. Pour yourself a nice cup of tea, serve yourself a tastey sweet treat, raise your cup in a toast to the women we honor today, and enjoy the carnival!

Vickie Everhart presents A Tribute to Our Mahala posted at .: BeNotForgot :: begotten & ne'er forgotten :., saying, "Our Mahala was the daughter of an Alcalde of early Texas, a sister of the donor of the land for a Texas city, a mother of two boys and two girls, a stepmother of the Keeper of a Civil War Journal still available today, et al. She married twice, surviving both husbands. as well as at least one of her four children. And she was my 3rd great-grandma." Vickie has a very detailed time line that weaves the events of Texas history with the events of Mahala's life. She also has a gorgeous scrapbook page with a lovely picture of Mahala on it. Vickie also wrote about how she obtained the information for Mahala's biography. That's an interesting story in itself. Thanks for sharing Mahala with us, Vickie!

Chery Kinnick presents Nordic Blue: February 2010 posted at Nordic Blue, saying, ""Duty, Fate, and Beauty" remembers the great personal sacrifices of early American homesteading women who lived hard and often died young, like Regina Winje Strand (1873-1899), who was born to Norwegian immigrants on the southwestern Minnesota prairie." Cherry is a wonderful story teller. Here she incorporates some lovely photographs along with a letter written by Regina. I wonder how many 16 year olds could a letter as eloquently as Regina did! Thanks for sharing Regina with us, Cherry!

Carol presents 91st Carnival of Genealogy, A Tribute to Women! The Biography posted at Reflections From the Fence, saying, "My choice to write about is a lady of intrigue, with a 17 year hole in her personal life story time line." Carol shares with us the life story of Edna, who is born in Nova Scotia but somehow turns up in Detroit where she marries a man of some intrigue. It's a compeling story written with style and grace, as only Carol can. Very nice time line too! Thanks for an interesting read Carol!

J.M. presents Biography of Henriette Geertruida Lamboo posted at Tracing My Roots, saying, "A biography of my grandmother, written to get an overview of what I have and what I don't have. It brought back more memories than I could have imagined before I started writing it." This is a must read! J.M. has a beautiful time line, wonderfully interprets her research on Henriette's life, and ends with her own personal memories of the events surrounding her death. This story flows beautifully. I especially liked J.M.'s analysis of her time line and what information she has and what's lacking in this story of her grandmother's life. Thanks for sharing Henriette with us, J.M.!

Linda McCauley presents 91st Carnival of Genealogy, A Tribute To Women! - Emmie's Story (Part 1) posted at Documenting the Details, saying, "I chose my great-grandmother, Emma Jane Owens Taylor, as the subject for this tribute because she is the oldest ancestor that I knew well. Emmie's Story is a series of 4 posts plus a timeline." Linda did a very nice job in creating the time line and writing the bio for Emmie. I especially appreciated all the lovely family photos of Emmie. She was a darling! And Linda's story of her life flowed beautifully. Linda aslo did a nice job of putting in some American history for time perspective. Thanks for sharing Emmie with us!

Linda Hughes Hiser presents 91st COG--A Tribute to Women--Mary Louise Hill VanGilder posted at Flipside, saying, "From birth to death, my great great grandmother lived in the same home, raising a family of eleven children." Linda created an awesome timeline at TimeToast.com, complete with pictures. It's very nice! And she did a terrific job of interweaving Mary Louise's life with the growth of Morgantown, West Virginia.Very well done, Linda!What a great idea for creating the scenery of her life!

Joan Hill presents Carnival of Genealogy's Tribute to Women: Orena, The Forgotten Keyes Matriarch posted at Roots'n'Leaves, saying, "Orena Cordelia Keyes' life seemed more like a background melody. However she was indeed the unofficial Keyes matriarch – the female leader of the clan. As the eldest daughter of my great-great grandparents, David L. and Susan J. Keyes, Orena “tended to business” which meant that she lived a life in service to others and forsaking her own wishes and desires. “Orena, The Forgotten Keyes Matriarch” is my tribute to this strong and lovely woman."

Tina Lyons presents The Life of Alice Susan HILLIS posted at Tina's Genealogical Wish List. Tina created a nice outline and created seperate posts for each period of Alice's life. I'm sure the out line helped her organize her research and keep the story straight... not an easy thing to do for Alice who move back and forth from Ohio to Kentucky several times! Nicely done, Tina!

Judy Cole presents The Sheep and the Tar Baby or A Woman’s Work is Never Done posted at The Genealogy Gals, saying, "I have a love-hate relationship with timelines. They are wonderful tools for finding the holes in your research on the other hand they really show the holes in your research. Here’s one for Anna Donahue Costello that reminded me how little I know of her early story, but also shows what a great story it is."

Donna presents A Tribute to Maria posted at What's Past is Prologue, saying, "Donna Pointkouski celebrates the life of her Bavarian great-grandmother, who died too soon but left behind a legacy of love." Donna tells us of Maria whose life begins in Germany and ends in Pennsylvania. I like the way she interprets the early years of Maria's life from the documents available to her and then goes on to include family stories of Maria when she lived in PA. Donna's writing flows so well and carries us along from one life event to another. Beautifully written. Thank you, Donna!

Nancy Messier presents A Kind and Generous Woman posted at My Ancestors and Me, saying, "Strength. Courage. Commitment. Fortitude. Happy. Kind. Generous. These are some of the words I associate with Elvira Bartley Gerner, the woman who is my great-grandmother. Read on to learn a little about her life and times." Nancy created a very nice time line and wrote a very lovely biography about her great grandmother, Elvira. I especially liked how she pointed out many conveniences we have today that Elvira did not have when she was raising her 16 children! Good food for thought! Thank you for sharing Elvira with us, Nancy.

Jasia presents The Life and Times of Karolina Furman posted at Creative Gene. "Oh what a challenge it is to write about someone you know very little about. Check out what I came up with in this story of my great grandmother's life in Poland." I created a detailed time line using the "Chronology Report" in my Legacy software. It really helped me get my information organized, pointed out an error that caused me to have to reconstruct Karolina's whole family line, and made it easy to write about her life in sequence.

Judith Richards Shubert presents Polly Brock's Texas Timeline posted at Genealogy Traces, saying, "Polly Brock, my Great-great-grandmother lived during the 1800 and 1900s in Texas and I have created a timeline for her based on events happening in Texas during her lifetime."

~*~*~*Feature Article *~*~*~

Apple presents Sarah Ann Wisner Camfield - 1817 - 1912 posted at Apple's Tree, saying, "Of all my female ancestors I feel that I have come to know Sarah Ann the best of any, other than my mother. She died more than 45 years before my birth, however I was able to get to know her through her letters. The letters span her later years and I've learned much about that period of her life, the trials she faced, the things that made her happy or sad and her day to day thoughts." Apple's biography of her second great grandmother, Sarah Ann Wisner Camfield, is a delightful read. Apple is a natural at storytelling and she beautifully incorporates historical maps, aerial views of the area where Sarah Ann lived, along with lovely family photos, parts of letters Sarah Ann wrote, and a terrific color-coded time line of Sarah Ann's life (that's a work of art in itself!). No doubt Apple put a great deal of time and effort into her biography and time line and the result is a quality piece of writing. Terrific read!

Please join me in congratulating Apple for being the COG's featured author for this 91st Edition!
That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. I believe we have done a marvelous job of honoring the women on our family trees. I enjoyed meeting each and every one of them and I hope you did too. Now it's time to finish off that pot of tea and get ready for the next edition of the COG...

Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: Dance! Did you take dance lessons as a child? Did your parents go out dancing every Friday at the Elks Hall? Do you enjoy taking in a good ballet at the theater? Care to share a memory from your high school prom? What role does dancing play in your family history? Come on, let's cut a rug! Deadline for submissions is April 1st, 30 submissions will be accepted.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

How interesting that only ladies submitted for this COG. I wonder what that means?? Maybe nothing. I enjoyed spending my evening with the gals and reading all these fine biographies. Strong ladies, all, the writers and the subjects.

Thanks Jasia for hosting this carnival and for the kind words. This was my 1st time participating in a COG. I really enjoyed it and look forward to more. I'm still working my way through all of the entries (and adding more blogs to my already long list to read on a regular basis) but am amazed at the number of different styles and approaches. They are all so interesting.